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In memory of Paul Walker: 5 of his best moments

Paul Walker has passed and leaves a huge, Brian O’Conner shaped hole in the middle of Fast & Furious. Just which were the moments that made him a legend of this franchise?

After his death on November, 30th, Paul Walker has received a huge amount of support, love and praise from his co-stars, fans and family members alike. One of the biggest stars of the Fast & Furious franchise, Walker’s face became one of the most instantly recognisable in Hollywood. It didn’t do him any harm that he didn’t look anything like a man named “Paul Walker” should, either.

The crash that took his life as well as his close friend and business partner, Roger Rodas, looked to have been one of the most dramatic and horrifying accidents to happen in recent memory. Last night, the autopsy results showed that Walker and Rodas died from a combination of injuries received upon impact and the fire that left the car utterly ruined.

Enough of the miserable stuff. In life, Paul Walker was a pretty stand-up guy. Father, Brother, Philanthropist, Shark Hunter; Walker was all of these things and more. He lived an amazing life both on screen and off but what he’ll be remembered for most is playing cop-turned-street-racer Brian O’Conner in the films which to date have grossed just under $2.4 billion. That’s not bad going, is it? To celebrate Walker’s passing I’ve assembled the 5 best things from his time in the Fast & Furious films to date. Sit back and enjoy the drift.

1) He’s cool but not TOO cool!

One of the keys to how well Brian O’Conner fits into the tough, squinty world of Fast & Furious is that, on several occasions, he isn’t anywhere near as cool or tough as the other characters. In reality, he’s kind of goofy. This could be said that he wouldn’t fit in with the aesthetic of, say, Vin Diesel or The Rock but it works perfectly because it means Walker’s character is a far more relatable to everyman. Just look at the Million Dollar Race scene in Fast Five, none of them are in the same car but they’re all just mates have a good laugh. It just works, you know?

2) Crazy plot lines aren’t a worry for Brian O’Conner

If you watched any of this franchise’s movies and expected them to be firmly based in reality, you’ve missed the point by an enormous margin. Fast & Furious is all about high octane car chases so it wouldn’t make sense to base the films in reality, so they didn’t. Let’s take some of the action from 2 Fast 2 Furious shall we? Walker and Tyrese Gibson crash a car into the side of a yacht. That’s exactly the kind of stunts pulled in such a franchise. Who cares, though? Reality isn’t what we came for.

3) He jumped a car over a car!

Remember THAT scene in 2 Fast 2 Furious? Pursuing yet another person that Brian O’Conner pursues, he’s pushing the car to its limits, visibly been thrust back into his seat as the gauge goes from 140 to 150 to 160. He’s clutching the steering wheel tight. He sees the bridge coming up knowing a jump is inevitable. Then, he goes over a car in mid-air. Nothing major, it was just another day in the life of Paul Walker.

4) All of the police chases

There’s this part in the first movie in the franchise wherein Vin Diesel and Brian O’Conner are found in the same car with Brian behind the wheel. He slaloms two cop cars and then his car takes off for the shortest amount of time. It’s not particularly breath taking, nor are the special effects anything you would have been left drooling over; however, it’s one of the first scenes where you really see Vin Diesel accept Walker. It isn’t for his car, or his attitude, just how casual he was in evading a couple of squad cars.

5) He knows how to fight, too

We all knew O’Conner could drive, the films would have been over before they took off if he kept pulling out majors in his test. In Fast and Furious 6, Walker gives us one of the best fight scenes in all of the movies. Owing largely to just how bad ass it is getting yourself put in jail just to speak to a bad guy. Wanting to know more about Michelle Rodriguez’s character, Walker gets himself put away and then promptly dispatches three inmates and all without hair coming out of place. Not bad, Mr. Walker.